RouteGuru.com - landmark based textual driving directions
I have a phobia - driving to a meeting to an unknown place, alone! The very thought of it freaks me out and the thought could have similar effects on anyone who is to drive in a city like New Delhi and transiting between Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and rest of Delhi/NCR. One wrong turn and you’re astrayed to a point of complete moral distortion because the next corrective turn on the route would either be hard to spot or 5 km away and then you’re already late for the meeting.
But, you know what, people like me could use some help from RouteGuru.com, a website that offers driving directions in text format with instructions based on landmarks on the route. Yet better, they also show an approximate auto rickshaw (taxi) fare for the route.
What I like about the website
- The concept itself because being able to get route hints in text format alongwith landmark indications is unique.
- Getting routes and directions is easy. Just enter the starting and end point of your journey in the Delhi/NCR region and poof! You get directions with instructions to take right/left turns from landmarks such as roads, lanes, fly-overs, famous buildings etc.
- Even when there are no labels or names available for streets or lanes, the service will give landmark based route hints in order to guide you through your journey.
The website has an easy to use interface and easy to understand usability instructions.
But what excites more is that as a Delhiite you won’t have to argue with autowalaa’s for the fare or when they take spurious routes to get a higher fare. Before entering the auto you would know the landmarks on the route and you would know if the driver takes you from a dubious route.
Plus you also get the route on the map. These guys have done a splendid job by mashing up their text info with Google Maps via the map API provided by Google.
The map view of the route gives a further clarity on the route. You can also take a print out of the directions.
Even better, this service is available on WAP as well as SMS. For the WAP version of RouteGuru you need to access http://www.routeguru.com/m
To avail this service on SMS you have to send “rg starting point to destination“ to 56767 and you’ll get the directions in text alongwith the auto fare for that route.
But the service is available in India only and that too for the National Capital Region of Delhi. Hope they’ll expand to more cities and eventually on a global scale.
What I miss in the product
- I wish this could be a national and an international service soon.
- The text directions are based on the GIS data provided by an external source (Eicher Good Earth) and hence the directions contain the formal names of roads, structures and buildings. It could be better if the native or local names of roads and buildings could be provided.
- There are certain routes I or anyone else would take for some destinations that an algorithm might not be able to analyse. There should have been an option for user generated content (UGC) so that people could add their favourite routes and help other people know the alternate short-cut routes. With UGC enabled people would also add the native names of roads and places. For instance Ring Road in New Delhi is formally known as Mahatma Gandhi Marg, did you know that?
- Just one small thing that the WAP site address should have been m.routeguru.com since a dot (.) is easier to type than slashes (/) on a mobile phone.
I would still recommend this site to all Delhiites and people in other cities when this service launches in their city. FYI, RouteGuru is a Delhi-based startup and they intend to launch in different cities very soon. Their innovation in the GIS space, no doubt, is competent with map based navigation systems and all in all its an easy to access service for anyone who is not-so-good with finding routes.
This curry is hot but still being cooked.
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Comments
4 Responses to “RouteGuru.com - landmark based textual driving directions”
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Yup. They should do this for other cities before someone runs away with their show.
Abhishek, That’s an exhaustive coverage after a long. Thank you so much for that.
1. We should be National not very late. International is still little long a journey for us.
2. We do the name customizations to the PoI(s) i.e. landmarks. However, right way would be to allow the user to do it.
3. UGC is definitely the crucial element. You’ll see a paradigm shift in directions industry very soon.
4. m.routeguru.com is surely a valid point. We did receive this feedback from others. Will be done with priority.
Important - Any feedback that we receive directly, we do make the suitable changes in the system/ database even manually (if needed).
Look forward to more such feedbacks going forward.
Piyush, I am glad that you took this review as a constructive feedback. I’d love to help with my feedback whenever I have something to share.
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Abhishek
RouteGuru.com landmark based driving directions…
RouteGuru.com, a website that offers driving directions in text format with instructions based on landmarks on the route. Yet better, they also show an approximate auto rickshaw (taxi) fare for the route….